By BETSY POWELLCity Hall Bureau
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Ward 2 candidate Jeff Canning canvases during the Somali Festival in Dixon Park on Sunday, ahead of Monday's byelection. (ANDREW LAHODYNSKYJ / TORONTO STAR)
Jeff Canning knew he was “pushing back against history” when he decided to run in the Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) byelection to fill the vacancy on city council left by the death of Rob Ford.
But as Monday’s vote draws near, the 56-year-old first-time, self-funded candidate hopes the contest will not be the dynastic cakewalk for Michael Ford that everyone predicts.
Ford is the 22-year-old nephew of the late councillor and former mayor, who died of a rare form of cancer last March. Michael Ford’s other uncle, Doug, was Ward 2 councillor from 2010 to 2014 during his brother’s turbulent mayoralty. Their father, Doug Sr., also served the area in the ’90s as a Progressive Conservative MPP at Queen’s Park.
Canvassing in parts of Etobicoke traditionally “entrenched in the Ford camp,” Canning says he’s hearing that voters want “a new voice, new leadership; they want change.”
On the election trail, Ford has adopted his late uncle’s sloganeering, promising to eliminate waste, keep taxes low and show up at voters’ doors when needed.
“It’s hollow. It doesn’t have meaning any more. People look beyond that veneer and see that it hasn’t benefitted us in any way,” says Canning.
Michael Ford insists the opposite is true. At almost every door he has knocked on, “every person tells me that if you continue customer service, you have our support.”
Canning also suggests that while Ford is trying to persuade Ward 2 residents he is just like his beloved uncles, he has also made public statements “that would make Ford Nation throw him off the boat.”